Blood Orchid (Holly Barker 3)

“I’m not going to tell you,” she said.

“Why not?”

“Because I want to stay alive. I’m not going to tell anybody. Come on, Daisy,” she said to the dog. They both got into her car, and she started the engine. “You can reach me on my cellphone.” She reversed out of the driveway and drove down the street, leaving Grant standing there.

She made sure she wasn’t followed, turning down small streets and watching her mirror, then she got back onto A1A and headed for safety.

Ed Shine was waiting for her in his car at the entrance to Blood Orchid, and when he spotted her car, he waved for her to follow him. They drove around the golf course to a small road near the airport, where Ed turned in. Finally, he stopped before a cottage under some trees and got out.

“Here we are,” he said. “I’m glad you called; I’ve been worried about you since our talk.”

“Thank you for taking such good care of me, Ed,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m glad to help,” he said, leading her into the house. “Here we are—living room, dining room, kitchen, and the bedrooms are back here—two of them, take your pick.”

Holly chose one and dumped her bag on the bed. “It’s lovely, Ed.”

“I had them redone first thing. You can stay as long as you want. You’ll hear airplanes taking off and landing now and then—the airfield is right behind the house—but there isn’t much traffic, just prospective buyers coming and going, so it shouldn’t bother you too much. Would you like a drink?”

“Yes, I would,” Holly said, following him into the living room.

He opened a cabinet to reveal a well-stocked bar with sink and ice machine. “Bourbon?”

“That would be lovely; I need it.”

He poured her a drink and himself a scotch, and they sat down.

“Now tell me,” he said, “what’s happened?”

Holly took a sip of her drink and poured out everything, describing the scene in the churchyard as vividly as she dared without beginning to cry.

“Nine dead, twenty-six wounded, five of them in critical condition,” she said.

“Good God!” Ed said, holding her hand.

“And it’s all my fault; it was my big idea to trap Trini Rodriguez, using Marina for bait, since she refused to be protected anyway.”

“Then it would have happened anyway, whether you’d had your idea or not, Holly. Stop blaming yourself; you did everything you could.”

That night, she went to bed trying to think of what else she might have done. She fell into a troubled sleep, having thought of nothing.

52

Holly holed up for two days in the guest cottage, watching TV and listening to the airplanes come and go two or three times a day, and talking with Grant, Ham, and her office on the phone. Daisy was her only company. She felt so paranoid by now that she would give no one her location

, not even Ham, just her cellphone number.

The cellphone rang.

“Hello?”

“Holly, it’s Ginny. How are you?”

“Alive,” Holly said.

“I don’t know where you are, but it’s not good for you to be alone right now, not after all that’s happened.”

“I’m staying here until they catch Rodriguez,” she said.